EDITOR’S NOTE: Below is a selection of the responses from readers of MDJOnline.com in reaction to recent MDJ stories.

As electric car sales stall Cobb adds charging stations …

ConsumerX — As someone who has a long commute to Atlanta, it’s a great beginning. ECOtality’s plan to install more than 300 charging stations in the city of Atlanta will help mitigate the anxiety most feel with the ranges they can drive with EVs. Good start, but more needs to be done.

Kyle Sager — This article seemed terribly misleading on sales. It focuses on Pike Research’s spin rather than on actual sales. Plug-in vehicles tripled between 2011 and 2012 from around 17,000 to over 50,000 in the U.S. The European Union, with a population nearly double the United States, plans to deploy over 500,000 charging stations by 2020 making charging stations more ubiquitous than gas stations. Since the electricity costs around 1/3 mile-per-mile of gasoline, it makes sense.

Ohdear1 — When will Cobb County build a refueling station for my gas driven car?

Kyle Sager — When it costs $3,000 to deploy the station instead of $1 million.

Watcher — Daniel McDuff, deputy director of the Cobb DOT, said: “Another benefit is that it provides support for alternative fuel vehicles that use the county’s park-and-ride lots at no charge to them.” Don’t you just love Cobb Bureaucrats when they say “no charge.” Who will pay the power bill? Three guesses, and the first two don’t count.

VFP42 — The big problem here with plug-in electric cars is that Georgia Power becomes your OPEC. You think electricity prices won’t triple once electric cars are causing demand to exceed its supply of electricity? I will NEVER use a plug-in electric car in Georgia as long as Georgia Power owns this place. Nor should you, unless you want to pay $1,500 a month in the summer for the electricity for running your air conditioner.

Betsy Ross — We are simply exchanging one source of energy for another, and the other is entirely as bad as the first, if you are truly looking at the comparisons. But the libs are not, they are just looking to own the environmental issue while filling the pockets of their own “GREEN” cronies. Just look at Al Gore ... in bed not with Big Oil but with Arab cartels.

Tough Decision — Houston, we have a problem. The most popular EV cars are around $30,000 (Toyota’s Prius and Honda’s Accord). Conclusion: People who purchase $30,000 cars do not go to Park and Ride lots. Stop by any of these lots and you will see.

Demand for organic foods driving Cobb’s backyard chicken dilemma …

Sensible Solutions — There is really no reason why a person shouldn’t be allowed to have chickens. Put a limit based on the size of the lot, or say no to roosters, but make it work. Atlanta allows up to 25 chickens WITHOUT a permit!

There already are — Chickens are livestock, not domesticated pets. Do you want your chickens to live in the house with you?

Sensible Solutions — I want to do whatever I want on my property as long as it doesn’t harm my neighbors. The ordinance of 2 acres means 97 percent of people in Cobb can’t have chickens. Let’s be fair. We’ll keep the 2 acres for chickens and change the law so that you need 2 acres and have to pay a $1,000 fee for dogs over 40 pounds.

Sandie17 — I do not want chickens next to my home. I grew up around chickens, am very familiar with the odor and the crowing. No thanks. You want chickens, move to the country.

Thank you, Sandie — The majority of us in Cobb County feel the way you do. It seems the Chicken Gestapo has taken over the comments section of the MDJ.

Live and Let Live — Why does it have to be all or nothing? The Commissioners could put forth a plan that forbids roosters and limits the number of chickens you can have. Not everyone can afford to go to Harry’s and buy organic.

Kristin Picken — Why can’t I have a few chickens in my backyard that can enjoy some sun on their beaks rather than languish in an industrial henhouse somewhere?

Enough MDJ — How many chicken stories do you need to run every week? Is there a quota?

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